Mah Jong
Living with the threat of Coronavirus!
Contact: Christine Hogben 02392 255827 if you would like to join us or for information about the group. Until we get completely back to normal contact Margaret Stanger 02392 619152 for information about the meetings.
The current lockdown and December Tier 2 rules mean that we cannot meet at 2pm each Tuesday. We are hoping to restart when the Government and Third Age Trust rules on indoor meetings allow.
Traditional Mah Jong is an ancient Chinese strategy game. It is played with bamboo Mah Jong tiles, and was introduced to the rest of the world in the early 20th century. In traditional Mah Jong, there are usually four players and 144 Mah Jong tiles, based on Chinese characters and symbols. Each player begins with 13 tiles and takes turns drawing and discarding tiles until they form a winning hand.
Imagine you were dealt the hand of the week on the right. Its a random hand like you would get in a normal game. What would you make it into, and if it was goulash, which three tiles would you swap first?what tiles would you hope for? Anyone who emails me with a suggestion will have it published here next week.
Barbara Westlake said that she would try for Five Odd Honours with last weeks hand. For a goulash she would discard 3 tiles from the bamboo and characters and hope for one more different Honour tile and circle tiles between 6 and 9. I had originally thought of Greta's Garden but Barbara's solution is better.
Alternatively you could play the online strategic matching game, via the link to Mah Jong Solitaire, top right. You must remove all Mah Jong tiles from the board before time runs out. There’s a catch, though! You can only select unblocked Mah Jong tiles that do not have other tiles to their right or left. It’s a race against time – the faster you go, the more points you score!